Eric Johnson
Known as “the voice of Generation X”, the 1990s would never fall in love with, or be more devastated by any musical talents quite like the talent of Nirvana’s front man Kurt Cobain. Almost single handedly creating and destroying an entire genre of music that would change the face of rock into what we know it as today, Kurt Cobain was an artist, a poet, and a deeply damaged individual who would eventually bring himself and all of his work to a violent and sudden halt.
Cobain grew up in Aberdeen Washington under a family that could only be described as dysfunctional and unattached. With no proper guidance, Cobain lived by his own rules and alone in his own private world. His mother and his father divorced when he was young which resulted in his mother gaining custody of him. Living only with his mother, Cobain found an interest in music through listening to his mother’s Elvis records. He was not a big fan of Elvis’s music but he was fascinated with the idea of him. Cobain also found a great fascination in The Beatles. He enjoyed the dynamic of the band and was a big fan of John Lennon’s work. In an interview for MTV, Cobain stated that since he was young he had wanted to be like one of the Beatles. “I wanted to have the admiration of John Lennon but have the anonymity of Ringo Starr” Cobain said. With a newly developed passion for music, Cobain began to develop a creative mind in writing as well. He began to take drum lessons and write songs that contained strange lyrics and weird melodies. Little did he know that he was soon to create a sound that would define the sound of the 1990s.
Since a young age, Cobain suffered from bronchitis and chronic stomach pains that nearly consumed his life. This caused Cobain to drop out in his junior year of high school. Without a job, or a proper high school education, Cobain was forced to get a job as a janitor at the high school that he attended on what would have been his senior year. Cobain was also forced to move out of his mother’s house and with proper shelter, it is said that he would find places like hospitals or a nearby bridge to sleep under. It is also rumored that this was Cobain’s inspiration to eventually write his popular song “Something in the Way”.
It wasn't until Cobain made some money and met his first girlfriend Tracy, that he would find a proper place to stay. It was then that Cobain began to learn how to play the guitar and was introduced to his future band member Krist Novoselic. Cobain and Novoselic began to play in local bars and clubs using a drum machine. They called themselves Fecal Matter. As their popularity grew, the short lived Fecal Matter eventually evolved into Nirvana. Cobain felt that the name Nirvana was a more appropriate and a less disgusting name for a band that was beginning to develop some potential. Nirvana began to release records under their new name and by 1991 with their sophomore release Nevermind, Nirvana and Kurt Cobain became one of the most famous and most important alternative/grunge acts of all time.
As Cobain’s success began to grow, so did his anxiety. He began to struggle with his fame and saw that there was at that point no way back to his old life in the shadows. Dealing with severe depression, Cobain turned to heroin in order to help mask his perfect disguise as a happy successful rock star. His sadness and suffering began to show in his music and in interviews. In an MTV interview in 1993, Cobain stated that “As long as I’m going to feel like a junky every day, I might as well do drugs.” Cobain later went to rehab and was released after a few months due to reported progress.
In April 1994, Cobain was sent back to rehab by his then wife Courtney Love. Love had reported that Cobain was using again and was progressively getting worse. 2 nights after Cobain was sent back to rehab, Cobain had escaped from the rehab center that he was attending and was nowhere to be found. Many different people had reported to have seen him in the past few days after his escape, but it wasn't until April 8th that Cobain’s body was found dead by an electrician in his second home in Seattle. Next to Cobain’s body was a suicide note addressed to his family and fans. He had shot himself in the head with a shotgun and injected himself with an amount of heroin that would have killed him either way.
As soon as Cobain’s suicide was reported, people from around the country had come together to mourn the loss of their beloved musician. Radio stations played his songs on repeat and people from all over played his cover of David Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold the World” as a way of saying goodbye to the musician. For a moment, the entire country had appeared to have gone silent. Since then, the genre of grunge has never seen a talent quite like the talent of Kurt Cobain and grunge would eventually come to die with him. Today Kurt Cobain is still recognized for his impacts on music, and among many it is still a common question that what would music be like today if Kurt Cobain had not sold the world?
